As an English guy, I’m one of the few people I know who loves baseball (apart from many of my friends in the U.S.)
I remember watching my first game on T.V. in ’97 between the Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Guardians.
It was a great game with a tonne of runs scored.
Anyway, in baseball, you have the “three strikes and you’re out” rule.
When it comes to accurate picking on the guitar, I like to use the same three strikes rule.
You see, a lot of guitarists get really annoyed when they are playing a picking pattern, or riff, or solo, and they hit the wrong strings!
It can be insanely frustrating, and we’ve all been there.
So, what I like to do is to make a game of it.
…And I get students to play a picking pattern (using their fingers or a pick) and play it over and over for a period of time.
This can be 20 attempts at the whole pattern or by setting a timer for 2 minutes.
It’s good to focus purely on the picking hand here and not to worry about chord changes.
Each mistake equals a strike and, of course, three strikes means you’re out (although you can just start again).
It’s funny how making a game of it, with clear targets of what to do and what mistakes to avoid, concentrates the mind and gives clarity to any exercise!
Try it, make a target (using a set time or a set number of attempts) and with a little practice, you’ll be hitting home runs with the bases loaded like your name is Chipper Jones (my favourite baseball player).
I hope you found that useful…
For more help on accurate picking and to get a simple picking pattern you can use with this game, check out my new Amazon Kindle eBook below…
It’s super inexpensive, it’s short and right to the point, but it’s full of great value. I can’t imagine I’ll keep it at this price for too much longer – we will see. For now, though, you can find out more below…
Check out the QuickStart 7-Day Guitar Plan
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. If you do get it, please leave it a review once you’ve checked it out. It will be greatly appreciated and if this book gets enough reviews, I’ll do more short and powerful little eBooks like this.
P.P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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